Republican state legislators defeat Democratic request for special session on guns. Here’s how they voted.

Florida legislators are voting on whether to hold a special session to pass gun legislation in response to back-to-back mass shootings in Texas and Ohio that killed 31 people.

Democratic state legislators failed to muster enough votes to hold a special session to pass gun bills in response to back-to-back mass shootings earlier this month in Texas and Ohio that killed 31 people.

At least three-fifths of lawmakers needed to agree for the GOP-controlled Legislature to convene early. The proposal fell well short of meeting that mark.

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Eighty-eight legislators voted against holding a special session, while 52 supported it, according to a final tally released Tuesday by the Florida Department of State. Twenty legislators did not submit their vote by the 5 p.m. deadline.

The vote broke down almost entirely along party lines with Republicans opposing a special session. Three Democrats crossed party lines to join Republicans.

Rep. Cindy Polo, D-Miramar, said the result is “disappointing but not unexpected.”

“Unfortunately, on the Republican side, there are not many people who are brave enough to stand up to their leadership and the gun lobbyists,” she said. “Now, we have all these elected officials on record that they will not make the prevention of gun violence a top priority. We will continue to do our job, and we hope voters will remember exactly how their elected officials voted on this.”

The poll was triggered when 41 House Democrats sent letters to the State Department requesting a special session. Rep. Al Jacquet, D-Riviera Beach, Rep. Bruce Antone, D-Orlando, and Sen. Bill Montford, D-Tallahassee, were the only Democrats to oppose the special session.

Jacquet sent a letter requesting a special session but then he voted against it. In a text message, he wrote that he thinks the special session would do little to address the day-to-day gun violence in his district.

In response to the Democratic gun agenda, Rep. Anthony Sabatini, R-Howey-in-the-Hills, tweeted he favors a special session to repeal Florida’s red-flag law and allow concealed weapons to be carried on college campuses.

I support a special session on gun-reform! We must pass:-constitutional carry -open carry-campus carryAnd repeal Florida’s unconstitutional red-flag law.#2Ahttps://t.co/tDbpxtEXK0

Back-to-back mass shootings earlier this month that killed 31 people in Texas and Ohio have put the gun debate back into the forefront of national attention, and Democrats say action is needed immediately.

The Democratic wish-list for the special session omits a controversial assault weapons ban, but it includes proposals seen as more favorable to moderates, such as broadening the red-flag law, expanding background checks and banning the sale of high-capacity ammunition magazines.